Sceptics Posts

The bias against the therapeutic use of static magnets in society is as irrational as it is remarkable.

An article titled – “What are the best methods to help reduce knee pain” was published in The Australian on September 28, 2018 and was republished from the The Times of UK. The author, Peta Bee claimed that magnets “work by increasing the circulation of iron in the blood”. This description is comical and is completely contradicted by published research.

Twice we attempted to post a comment, not our words, but quoting a published Harvard Medical School clinical trial using static magnets for knee pain and twice the comment post was denied publication. You could call this a classic example of astroturfing, where vested interests promote agendas.

Battlefield Acupuncture was pioneered by Dr Richard Niemtzow and is administered at the point of injury to provide comfort and pain relief to wounded soldiers. Salzberg uses pejoratives such as pseudoscience, nonsense and unscientific to label acupuncture, as well as other complimentary therapies such as magnetic field therapy.

An article on magnetic therapy titled “Magnets’ pull yet to be proven” appeared in the Oct/Nov, 2014 issue of the popular RACQ magazine, The Road Ahead.

The RACQ is also a large insurer for motor vehicle injuries and ironically we have had a role in rehabilitating many of their policy holders for conditions such as whip lash using Q magnets. The author of the article is prominent Australian sceptic Loretta Marron OAM. Click on the image to enlarge it and read the entire article. Here is our response below…

We have provided a transcript of the interview with some links to the supporting documents and quoted studies.

Introduction by host David Prior of 2UE:
People have been using magnets for a long time now, third century AD the Greeks were actually treating arthritis with magnets. Medieval doctors used magnets to treat gout, poisoning and also baldness, believe it or not. Today, magnets are popular for pain relief for shoe insoles, bracelets, head bands, belts and mattress pads. So, can magnets bring about better health doctor Ross? What is the research?

Guest:
OK, last week (link to last week’s show) I was mentioning that I have trialled magnets for pain relief, I’ve trialled the Scenar therapy and I’ve also trialled the Pain Master. All of which have given me enormous relief, which I think is a good thing. I don’t think you need the very rigid randomised controlled clinical trials that you might need for strong pharmaceutical agents that also have the potential for harm or for significant surgical procedures. Alex called up and said I shouldn’t be condoning or advising therapy that doesn’t have proper science. He said there was a Cochrane Review that said that magnets don’t help at all, that it’s basically just snake oil salesman stuff.